[nagdu] On Ownership

[Raven Tolliver]

Here's the excuse for the piss-poor ownership policies. A lot of
schools will just accept almost anyone to come and train to use a dog.
This is sad but true. After entering the world of guide dog travelers,
I have seen people get accepted to different schools, and wonder how
on God's green earth those people were deemed promising guide dog
travelers. This is not because they seemed like they would be abusive,
but because they had unbelievably poor O&M skills, because they
encouraged and allowed their dogs to do inappropriate behaviors,
because they were careless and neglectful right off the bat,, and so
on. Also, schools match people with dogs and send them home with that
dog, knowing at the end of the first week that the team is not a good
match by any stretch. People are matched with dogs that are too slow,
too fast, too high-strung, highly distracted, you name it. These
schools want to give people or the dogs the benefit of the doubt, and
end up sending these people home with dogs, then going out to get the
dogs 1, 3, or 6 months later.
What needs to happen is that every school grant ownership upon
graduation, and change their application processes.
Also, I will admit I don't approve of the ownership policy of the
program I attended. However, I was not willing to sacrifice my other
criteria for a school and a dog just to have ownership. There are
schools that give ownership upon graduation, and at the same time use
practices that I eschew, or they don't meet my personal requirements.
Obviously, ownership was less important to me than the other things I
wanted in both a school and a dog.


On 5/2/14, Julie J. <julielj at neb.rr.com> wrote:
> Do any of the programs do criminal background checks?  What about the
> references?  Is a reference letter submitted or are these people called and
>
> asked questions?
>
> I feel that the programs should use whatever means necessary to assess the
> suitability of a particular person to have a dog and then let them have the
>
> dog.  If there is some concern that the person won't properly take care of
> the dog, then that person shouldn't get one.  Once the person has the dog,
> it's too late to prevent abuse or neglect.   Ownership or no ownership isn't
>
> going to change the condition of the dog.
>
> The only way that ownership can influence how people act toward their dog is
>
> if it's used as a threat.  If you don't do what we say, then we'll repossess
>
> your dog.  the thing with this approach is that it only works on folks who
> would have taken proper care of the dog regardless of the ownership policy.
>
> People who do bad things are going to do bad things regardless of the rules.
>
> An ownership policy isn't going to prevent abuse, any more than domestic
> abuse laws stop spouses from hitting each other.    People who don't commit
>
> abuse don't do it because of a law, they are non abusers because they feel
> it's the right way to act.
>
> I'd really like to know what the actual reason is for the various schools
> ownership policies.  I've heard obesity, abuse, better follow up, being able
>
> to place the dog after retirement, better service and all other manner of
> nonsense.  It doesn't make any sense to me.  How does the ownership policy
> affect the school's ability to provide good service?  It smells like an
> excuse to me.
>
> It would be interesting to see solid statistics comparing things like
> obesity rates, abuse, time between a follow up request and the provision of
>
> service and overall success rates between programs that retain ownership and
>
> those that don't.  My hunch is that there is no correlation between
> ownership and these items.  I think the better indicator is the quality of
> the applicant screening process, and the quality of the training at the
> program
>
> Julie
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> nagdu mailing list
> nagdu at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> nagdu:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/ravend729%40gmail.com
>


-- 
Raven